{"id":1362,"date":"2014-05-18T14:00:49","date_gmt":"2014-05-18T18:00:49","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/?p=1362"},"modified":"2014-05-18T14:00:49","modified_gmt":"2014-05-18T18:00:49","slug":"5th-sunday-of-easter-year-a-homily","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/5th-sunday-of-easter-year-a-homily\/","title":{"rendered":"5th Sunday of Easter, Year A – Homily"},"content":{"rendered":"

5th<\/sup> Sunday in Easter, Year A<\/a>
\nActs 6:1-7
\n1 Peter 2:4-9
\nJohn 14:1-12
\nMay 18, 2014<\/p>\n

Jesus says, \u201cDo not let your hearts be troubled<\/em>.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0The reality is the world is not perfect and we can have \u201ctroubled hearts.\u201d\u00a0 Sometimes, such troubles are exactly what draws people to church who haven\u2019t been here in years.<\/p>\n

It\u2019s good to come to Jesus with our troubles. In fact, it is exactly what we should do but we must think about the attitude we come to Jesus with.<\/p>\n

Do we come simply looking for Jesus to fix our problems while we continue life as usual?\u00a0 Do we come thinking we are doing everything right but there\u2019s just this \u201cone problem\u201d we need fixed?<\/p>\n

Sometimes that might really be the case.\u00a0 But we need to be open to the idea that perhaps some of our problems exist because we aren\u2019t living the way we should.<\/p>\n

Last week I talked about how many different voices we hear today telling us different things.\u00a0 From whatever we hear we form our own opinion, we find our own way<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We might think we have all the answers. So, when we come to Jesus we might not ask him what we should be doing differently.\u00a0 We blame the problem on someone else or we believe if God just handles this one problem, we can take care of everything else.<\/p>\n

We can\u2019t.<\/p>\n

It is in our weaknesses that we can most allow Jesus to help us but only if we realize we can\u2019t do it all ourselves; that we don\u2019t have all the answers; that our way may not be working.<\/p>\n

Jesus tells us that he is the way and the truth and the life<\/em>.<\/p>\n

We hear many different voices telling us there are many different ways.\u00a0 Some claim to know a proper way and others just say here\u2019s the way I do it but you can do it anyway you want.\u00a0 In this way of thinking Jesus\u2019 way is just one of many possibilities.<\/p>\n

But Jesus doesn\u2019t say I offer a<\/em><\/strong> way.\u00a0 Jesus doesn\u2019t say he offers us a<\/em><\/strong> truth.\u00a0 Jesus says that he is the<\/em><\/strong> way and the<\/em><\/strong> truth with emphasis on \u201cthe\u201d.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe\u201d tells us that Jesus\u2019 way is not one among many.\u00a0 Jesus is the one true way.\u00a0 Jesus offers us the truth that does not change, the truth that comes from God.<\/p>\n

Because Jesus is the<\/em><\/strong> way and the<\/em><\/strong> truth he is our cornerstone.\u00a0 Jesus needs to be what we base our whole life on.<\/p>\n

When we come to Jesus with our \u201ctroubles\u201d, we must be open to letting ourselves be transformed or, as Peter puts it, \u201clet yourselves be built into a spiritual house.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n

Troubles?\u00a0 Jesus wants to help us.\u00a0 What stands in his way?\u00a0 Well, not much can stop Jesus but one of the things that can is us.\u00a0 To let Jesus help us means to realize that we might need to change ourselves.\u00a0 We need to realize we don\u2019t have all the answers.<\/p>\n

Only God has all the answers.<\/p>\n

Going back to Jesus as the truth, this is a life-changing truth and it doesn\u2019t affect just one part of our lives.\u00a0 It must be part of everything we do.<\/p>\n

Sometimes we live like faith was just one part of our life.\u00a0 We might see our faith as something we do<\/em><\/strong> rather than something we are<\/em><\/strong>.<\/p>\n

Why?\u00a0 I think a lot of it has to do with the way we learn about our faith.\u00a0 We learn most of what we know about God as little children.\u00a0 As such we learn lists of rules but we don\u2019t learn why?\u00a0 Not that we will ever know all the whys in this world but when we do, it makes it easier to believe.<\/p>\n

When we don\u2019t know why, we are more tempted to do it our own way.\u00a0 There can be church teachings that we don\u2019t understand or agree with.\u00a0 What is our response then?\u00a0 Do we just do it our own way or do we make a real and deliberate effort to learn why?<\/p>\n

The church teaches that we follow our conscience but we must <\/em>seek to have a well-formed<\/em> conscience.\u00a0 That means asking questions and being open to answers that make us change.<\/p>\n

Jesus is the way and the truth and life.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

5th Sunday in Easter, Year A Acts 6:1-7 1 Peter 2:4-9 John 14:1-12 May 18, 2014 Jesus says, \u201cDo not let your hearts be troubled.\u201d\u00a0 \u00a0The reality is the world is not perfect and we can have \u201ctroubled hearts.\u201d\u00a0 Sometimes, such troubles are exactly what draws people to church who haven\u2019t been here in years. …<\/p>\n

Continue reading ‘5th Sunday of Easter, Year A – Homily’ »<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","enabled":false}}},"categories":[82],"tags":[],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"","jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/pMTPk-lY","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1362"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1363,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1362\/revisions\/1363"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1362"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1362"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blog.renewaloffaith.org\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1362"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}